First Day - Panic!

My insides were literally shaking as we stood in line at immigration. We couldn't find the keys to the house in any of my carry on luggage and that's where they had been when we were in the Charlotte airport. I had been keeping them - both sets that Ellen and Philip had given us - in my carry-on suitcase in the outside pockets and while waiting in the Charlotte airport, I had decided to take out of that pocket the little Ambien pill I had brought with me to help me sleep on the plane. John sits down in a plane, buckles in and goes to sleep. I'm awake almost the whole night and am miserable so I wanted to try something new.

Last year on 12/26, we had gone to London to learn all we could about Ellen and Philip's house. We were only going to be there 4 days and I hoped not to have any jet lag. So I took half an Ambien, got some sleep for a change and it worked - no jet lag. I was going to do it again this trip.

I realized while waiting in the Charlotte airport for our flight to board that I needed to move the pill from my carry-on suitcase into my computer case. The computer case would be with me in the seat while the suitcase would be overhead. So I pulled the pill case out and put it in the computer case. I remember taking the keys out of the suitcase and waving them at John, grinning all the time. They had become the symbol of our trip actually happening, so I knew they were with us.

During the flight, I started looking through the computer case for the pill and could not find it anywhere! More than once, I would lean over, pull the computer case up off the floor from under the seat in front of me and take everything out of that case! I was so frustrated. It was now about 2 hours into the trip and I wanted to get some sleep. John had even taken down the suitcase from the overhead bin so I could look in the outside pockets. That's where I had stowed the liquids, make-up and such; that I had to show at security, also the keys, and the pill in its little plastic container. I saw the liquids in the computer case so I knew that I had moved them from the suitcase (my make up was in there and I had to be beautiful when disembarking, you know!). I never thought about the keys, I was only focused on finding that @#%$ pill.

Finally, John moved to an empty row (yes, there were some!) to stretch out and go back to sleep leaving me agitated and annoyed with myself. I wanted to get to sleep but not only could I not find the pill, I couldn't figure out how to turn off the movie screen and it's bright facade was glaring in my face. I tried "stretching" out on our two seats using my own pillow to block the light. (Yes, I'm one of those who drags their pillow along. Say what you like but I am going to be here for three months, you know!) Proceeding to cover up with what the airlines calls a blanket, sleep did not come and my knees began to ache. I twisted, I turned, I reversed my position so my head was hanging out into the aisle instead of my feet. No luck, sleep would not come.

However, I must have dozed off somewhat, sometime, because while gathering my things to get ready to disembark, I remembered that in what might have been a dream or just my subconscious working that I hadn't seen the keys in the outside pocket of the carry-on when John had taken it down and I began to panic that they weren't with us. We checked my computer case and the suitcase and couldn't find them. Practically crawling under the airplane seats, I checked the floor. Nothing. By now, we were the last to get off the plane. Getting more and more nervous about the keys, by the time we got to the immigration/customs line, I was shaking. John had been reassuring me along the very long walk to this destination that they were with us in Charlotte and they were probably with us now, but we both had begun to have our doubts.

I was now convinced that when we were in the Charlotte airport and I transferred the pill and grinningly (is that a word?) showed the keys to John, I had laid the keys down in my seat to transfer the pill and walked off and left the keys in the seat. By now, my whole body was involved in this fear and as I said, I was literally shaking. I even felt sick to my stomach. We went through the computer case while in line. After passing through immigration, we stopped and went through the suitcase, but I KNEW they had been in the outside pocket and were not there. Oh, why, we were now asking ourselves, had we not split the keys up so we each had a set? Why had we not put them inside the suitcase rather than in an outside pocket? All the guilt I was feeling was getting overwhelming and the sick look on John's face was getting to be more than I could bear.

By this time we were at the baggage claim and while John went to get some pounds from an ATM machine and a cart to pick up our luggage, I went to a kiosk labeled "Global Baggage Services". I told the fellow there what our predicament was which also included the fact that we had no phones with us. We had purchased phones while in London in December and of course had left them in E&P's house, no point in bringing them to the states. There was also no point in bringing our Charlotte phones with us. The GBS guy suggested we go to the adjoining kiosk which handled USAir situations and that kind fellow called the Charlotte airport which had no record of lost keys. They recommended calling US Air Lost and Found who told us that anything lost during the day would not be reported to them until noon EST and that would be another nine hours! The only bright spot at this point was the fact that we were leaving London the next day from the same airport to go to Scotland for a week so if we found a B&B or hotel near the airport, we could stay there overnight and IF the keys were found in Charlotte, we had a week to get them to us.

By this time, we knew this was a BIG IF! So knowing we had to wait nine hours to call back USAir, we went to the Airport Information kiosk, told our tale of woe to the "mate" there (that's what all the people now involved in our saga were calling each other) and asked him if he had any recommendations regarding where we might spend the night. (Somewhere in this big mess, we had found a pay phone and had called our house - it was 3 AM your time- to ask E&P if anyone on their street had keys to their house. They apparently didn't hear the phone and it went to voicemail.... so we left them a message inquiring of such.) The mate was now asking us questions about whether there might not be another set of keys somewhere on the house premises or if a neighbor might not have a set, calling a locksmith, etc. He didn't realize that each set of keys consisted of three keys - one "new" one for the deadbolt and two others that might remind you of keys to get into a castle or manor house. Well, they weren't that big, but they are the very old style keys because the house is over 100 years old (very young in English terms) and these appear to be to the original door locks. I guess English locksmiths would be familiar with this but it seemed very daunting to us to even imagine that as a solution.

Well, our now new best friend, the very sympathetic Airport Information person who had recommended a small hotel just minutes away, suggested we x-ray my bags. It was now well over an hour since we had been through immigration; the ride we had hired to pick us up was nowhere to be seen and we were definitely consigned to our circumstances. So okay, why not, but it seemed pretty futile to me and John. After all, we had emptied them more than once. So while John stayed with our other bags, I followed the mate to a security area. Along the way, he told me that he had done this before and discovered keys that poor souls like me were sure would never show up. With that thought in mind, we went into a large white room where there was a bloke (another title bestowed on several we had met by now) who operated the x-ray device. Sure, he would run my bags through, no problem. First the carry-on went through. My heart sank and my stomach turned as he quietly studied the screen. Nope, no keys there. So in went the computer case, the one I had emptied again and again. The operator slowly studied the screen and then quietly said "There's a key in here." I looked over and sure enough, there was one of the old keys outlined on the screen. I'm not sure I will ever forget that moment or that image; believe me, I have seen it over and over again all day. Not quite believing it, though, I said, "No, there are supposed to be 4 of those, six keys all together." He replied that there certainly were a lot of keys in there. We took the bag out and began to empty it on the table.

Now, not to delay this any further but to justify all our looking, I want you to imagine this: On the plane the case was under the seat, one side down. As I would pull it up into my lap that down side was always against my body and I was looking down into the case and to the other side. I never looked at the side closest to me - ever. I mean, there isn't a whole lot of room in those seats to spread out and turn things around so it didn't occur to me to turn the bag around and look at the other side of it. When I would lower it back down to the floor, it went back the same way so when I would look again, it was always with that side of the bag sort of invisible to me. When the x-ray operator handed me the bag to empty, it was now turned toward me the other way and I saw the zippered pocket that I had forgotten about and immediately knew what was in there - the keys AND the pill!!! Can you imagine the relief? It washed over me like sudden sunshine on a runny day. I hugged my heroes. I just couldn't shake off the sudden reversal of all the sad anticipation and plans that we had been making. As my "new best friend" and I walked back toward John, I waved the plastic bag over my head. John's jaw dropped open and he laid his head down onto our suitcases on the cart in relief. We were two very giddy people. Looking back, I still don't recall transferring the keys along with the pill. I mean, why would I? I didn't need them near me on the flight like I did the pill. But you know what? Right now, I don't care. John and I got our ride to come back to the airport and bring us "home". We have had two naps, been to a pub and are now sitting quietly in E&P's very comfortable home with a glass of wine, our slippers and the happy anticipation of two more months and 29 days ahead of us to explore our beloved England.